Luke Littler’s mum branded Ally Pally fans ‘vile’ and ‘t***s’ in an angry social media tirade after her son was booed during his World Darts Championship defence. The reigning champion continued his surge towards successfully defending his crown when he overcame a hostile Alexandra Palace to beat Rob Cross and move into the quarter-finals of the competition. 

There is record-breaking prize money at stake with the winner taking home a whopping £1million. It is the first competition since the darts superstar was crowned world number one after usurping Luke Humphries to the accolade. Littler has dominated the field in his season tour with the Professional Darts Corporation after bursting onto the scene and to global stardom after his path to the final as a 16-year-old. However, his outburst following the win over Cross has landed him in hot water with the Ally Pally faithful.

Littler will take home at least £100,000 after reaching the last-16 but he will have his sights on starting 2026 with the biggest trophy that the PDC has on offer. He was up against it on Monday night after holding off a stubborn Cross to progress but he also had to overcome a raucous crowd in the capital, which led to emotional celebrations from the Nuke during key moments of the game.

The 18-year-old goaded those in attendance after the boos as he thanked fans for their negative reaction, citing that they pay for his ‘prize money’. The fallout continued on Tuesday with his mum, Lisa, responding to a series of social media comments describing the Monday night crowd as “vile” and “t***s”. 

One comment read: “The more I watch Luke Littler, the more I hate him,” which prompted his mother to respond: “Aww gutted for ya nottt (sic) (two laugh-crying emojis)”. In response to another, she said: “So they buy tickets with there (sic) hard earned money to sit there like t**ts and boo (thumbs up emoji)’.”

One reply called for Littler to act like the world number one, following his comments, but his mum hit back: “Best comment so far am sure Luke will carry on behaving like one as he as (sic) done crowds were vile let’s all boo the world number one idiots man’.”

Following his triumph, the 18-year-old went on an outburst where he poked fun at the Ally Pally crowd but later apologised. He said: “Am I bothered? Really, am I bothered?! Really not bothered.

“Can I just say one thing? You guys pay for the tickets and you pay for my prize money so thank you, thank you for my money! Thank you for booing me. Thank you – come on! I’ve just seen the stats then but I wasn’t really thinking of anything – I just wanted to win the game. It was hostile, nobody wanted me to win, but yet again I proved them wrong.”

The Nuke later admitted: “I think I lost it, I think it’s still on there. The fans have done what they done and I’ve reacted as any other player would really. Think I might have reacted a bit early on after that first set and when I came on for the second set and they were still at it I said to myself, ‘you’ve done it a bit too early here’. But I just had to get on with the job and when I went 3-1 up I felt like I was really in it. Rob found his feet but I just had to get rid of him.”

His 4-2 win over a former world champion set up a quarter-final clash with Krzysztof Ratajski on New Year’s Day after he beat Luke Woodhouse in his fourth-round tie.